State seeks new education funding formula

Sunday

Feb 16, 2014 at 4:37 PM

By Doug Finkeof GateHouse Media Illinois

SPRINGFIELD — State lawmakers this spring will have to grapple with an income tax increase set to expire at the end of the year, calls to change Illinois' income tax system and the politics surrounding what is expected to be a hard-fought battle for the governor's office.

They also could be asked to tackle nothing less than a total revamp of the way the state pays for elementary and secondary education.

Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, said he will press ahead with an effort to change the way Illinois distributes $6.7 billion in aid to education each year.

"Knowing this has been attempted many times over many, many decades, I don't enter this with a naïve sense of how easy this will be or how difficult it is going to be," said Manar, who is in his first term. "It may not solve every problem we face, but it will solve some of the major problems."

Principal among them, Manar said, is that the state's system for distributing financial assistance to schools hasn't changed in 17 years.

"We all know the state has changed dramatically in 17 years," he said. "The circumstances that face public education in Illinois have changed, but the law has failed to keep up."

That's meant, he said, that there is a wide disparity among districts in how much they are able to spend educating their students.

New formula needed

State money is distributed to school districts in a number of ways. Some is allocated through the general state aid formula that is supposed to help equalize assistance to districts based on need. Money also is distributed through other means, such as payments to districts to cover transportation costs, which are not based on need.

The Education Funding Advisory Committee that Manar co-chaired during a series of hearings last summer and fall concluded that only 45 percent of the state money allocated to education is distributed based on the property wealth of a school district. That property wealth is a major factor in how much money a district is able to devote to education.

The committee recommended developing a new approach in which 96 percent of state money would be allocated through a single formula that is based on student need and the property wealth of a district.

Exact details of the plan are not yet available, but the committee report says some money, like that for early childhood education and high-need special education, would still be separate. Other grants that are now separate, such as transportation reimbursements, would be folded into the new formula.

Manar acknowledged that some districts could see less money under the new formula than they get now. However, he said even under the current system, "there are net losers every year. We should keep that in mind. The thing that drives that the most isn't how much we distribute, it's how we distribute."

Political realities

That bottom line can make change in an election year particularly difficult, said Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

"You are going to get real and perceived winners and losers when you move from the status quo," he said. "People running (for election) in the fall are going to be very reluctant to vote for things that might be construed as cutting funds for their districts."

Moreover, the state's tight budget situation aggravates the problem, Redfield said. In good times, the state can allocate more money to temporarily tide over districts that would face loss of funds because of a change. But the state has cut more than $800 million from the education budget in recent years, and additional cuts are possible in the next fiscal year even without a change in the formula.

"It (education funding) needs to be addressed, there's no question about that," Redfield said. "It just seems a bridge too far this year."

'Limping along'

The Illinois Education Association is on board with the concept of revamping the funding formula.

"We've been limping along with a funding system that is not working,' said IEA President Cinda Klickna. "As always, the devil is in the details."

To that end, she said, research first needs to be done to show how specific school districts in the state would be affected by any proposed changes in the formula.

The funding advisory committee was comprised of senators from both parties.

Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, co-chaired the committee and said Republicans agreed with some aspects of the report that was issued and disagreed with others. There was agreement, he said, that a block grant to Chicago schools should be ended and that additional aid to school districts operating under property tax caps should be changed.

"The purpose of the (general aid) formula was it tried to help schools that didn't' have as much property tax value as other schools did," he said. "Over the years, it has sort of been skewed by taking a lot of money off the top for the poverty grants and the (tax cap) grants and the Chicago block grant. Less and less money has been put into the state aid formula."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.